Until two years ago, veteran bird watcher Steve Bray had never seen an adult bald eagle in the wild.

Now, if Bray spots just one, it's a slow day. He is a sanitary engineer at the Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant. From his office window, he has a view of the nearby shore of Onondaga Lake in Syracuse. Throughout the winter, in the morning, Bray can often see two or more eagles taking fish from open water created by the warm outflow from the treatment plant.

Last week, Bray and Marty Voss - another county water quality official - led a quick tour along a secluded piece of shoreline in the city. At least five bald eagles were active on the lake. Two were adults, with white heads and white tails. Three were "immatures," young eagles that resemble gigantic baby robins.

The thrill of watching them, Bray said, has yet to wear off.

At this time a year ago, as many as 14 bald eagles were visible at once near the outflow, which is protected from trespassers by the treatment plant, railroad tracks, fenced-off woodlands and an icy marsh. The number has not been as high this year. Mike Allen, a retired state wildlife technician who spent his career helping to restore the eagle population, said the smaller group is explained by milder conditions.

"Frozen water tends to concentrate the birds," said Allen, speaking of the tip of the lake, near the outflow, that always stays open. "If you don't see as many, it doesn't mean they're not in the general area; it means they don't all have to be in that concentrated area."

In other words, the colony in Syracuse is likely to grow if we get a cold snap. Allen said the birds remember where they winter from year to year, and often return to the same spots to feed.

That's good news to local officials, naturalists and members of the Onondaga Nation, who revere the lake as a sacred place. Last year, photographs of the eagles triggered a kind of joyous shock in Syracuse, where the lake for so long had been associated with pollution and despair. This time around, the focus is on how to best welcome the eagles, while keeping them safe.

By this spring, the Onondaga Audubon Society hopes to erect a platform in one of the trees along the shoreline that might encourage a nesting pair to stay throughout the year. Gerry Smith, local Audubon president, said area Boy Scouts are helping to build the platform.

While court-mandated remedial efforts have drastically reduced pollution in Onondaga Lake, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is taking steps to monitor the main diet of the eagles: the fish and water fowl from a lake that still contains high levels of mercury. Anne Secord, an environmental containment specialist, said researchers will visit Syracuse this month to collect blood and feather samples from some ducks, and to conduct similar tests on fish.

Secord said her agency is also finishing up a report this year on mercury levels in songbirds near the lake. "We just want to make sure that eagles aren't being exposed to concentrations of mercury in their food that could be harmful," she said.

As for public viewing, access to the shoreline is forbidden by the CSX railroad, whose freight trains make it dangerous for anyone on foot. The best hope is watching with binoculars from the parking lot at the Carousel Center, near the Sports Authority store. Ben Dublin, spokesman for county Executive Joanie Mahoney, said it is possible to see the eagles through binoculars from Onondaga Lake Park.

Syracuse parks commissioner Pat Driscoll expects to talk with county officials about the chances of creating a viewing platform that would give spectators - especially schoolchildren - a better chance to spot an eagle. The problem is "finding a safe way to do it," Dublin said. "With where those eagles are, there aren't a whole lot of options."

He called the birds "a great symbol of rebirth," which echoed the sentiments of Steve Bray:

Even in hard times, in a tired world, the wonder of these winter visitors does not wear off.